Svelvik Museum with Svelvik's old fire engine, an Opel Blitz from 1941 (drawing by Geir Helgen)

SVELVIK MUSEUM

The Svelvik Museum Society
was founded on January 11 1937 by the initiative of local journalist Sigfred L. Eier.
The Museum's collection today consists of more than 3000 registered items.

Living room with various exhibits

On exhibit here you will find most of the old Forsberg grocery store.
The store existed from 1882 until it was closed in 1957. The shop was left untouched for forty years until it was "rediscovered" and moved to the museum building.
In the living room you will also find the workshop of Svelvik's last shoemaker, Mr Myhre.
The museum has two fire-fighting carts with hand pumps from 1800, and different items from the local constabulary. Also in our barn is an old florist's cart.

Maritime departments with captain's quarters

Experience the age of the tall ships through our collection of exhibits from the captain's quarters, a pilot standard, model ships, navigation equipment, sailor's trunks, tools, a portable Christmas tree etc.
Here is also a nice skipper's home with a number of paintings of sail ships, and a small collection of English black china.

Elias Kræmmer's room

In this room you can find furniture, books and other belongings of our local celebrity, businessman and author Anton B. Nilsen alias Elias Kræmmer.

Home crafts room

In the museum's home crafts room there is a variety of handlooms, spinning wheels, irons, and various items of traditional handicraft.

Kitchen

The museum kitchen shows you kitchen utensils from different time periods. The old blue-painted kitchen brings back memories to many of our visitors.

Collections located outside the museum

The church collection

Items from the old church are on exhibit in a small "museum chapel" in the Church of Svelvik.

The bank strongbox

Our museum also owns the first strongbox from the Svelvik Savings Bank, this can be seen in the NOR Savings Bank in Storgaten 92.

The pharmacy

The museum's old pharmacy utensils are on exhibit at the local Svelvik Pharmacy in Storgaten 94.

The museum building: drawing from a prescription envelope issued by th local pharmacy

The history of the building

The building dates back to the end of the 18th century. It was reconstructed into a twostoreyed school building in 1840.
The first known owner was Ole Hannevig. He sold the house in 1788 to Hans Martin Kortner, who was a verger in the church of St. Nicolai from 1783 to 1816.
In 1840, a barn was built on the site. This was however torn down in 1948. The present barn dates from the Brattberg farm, and was recently moved to the museum because a service garage was built on its original site.

School building 1821 - 1851

In 1821 the present museum was bought as a public school building. Hans Evensen of Sande was employed as a headmaster in 1825. He also had his private quarters in the building.
At times two teachers were teaching as many as one hundred children in the school, and there was also a kind of preparatory school here, run by unmarried women and sailors' widows on a voluntary basis. The purpose of this was that the smaller children had to learn how to read before they could attend primary school. In need of more space, the school moved out in 1851. From 1845, the building was also used for local council meetings, but the local authorities moved into a new administration building in 1851.

Housing for the poor and elderly 1851 - 1936

The house was used for accommodating the poor and the elderly people of Svelvik until 1936.

Museum from 1937

Since 1937, the Svelvik Museum Society has been in charge of the building. The collections and the Museum Society were founded by local historian and journalist Sigfred L. Eier.
The bulding is still owned by the local authorities, whereas the museum collections are the property of the Museum Society.